Four men charged with battery in a suspected hazing incident involving an Arkansas Tech student last year pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement and received 90 days probation.

Bradley, Bender, Williams, and Summons were arrested in August after taking part in a severe beating of Deshawn Scoggins in April as part of a hazing ritual. After the beating, Scoggins was hospitalized and placed in a week-long medically-induced coma.

Scoggins sat in the front row of the courtroom, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his thighs throughout the proceedings. When asked by the judge if he had any objections to the deal, he said, “No sir.”

Judge Pearson accepted the plea, which marked a lenient conclusion to a case that began with second degree battery charges, a class D felony. But prosecuting attorney David Gibbons said that several mitigating circumstances lessened their charge.

“His injuries were very serious, but there was no evidence that these men meant him harm,” Gibbons said. “We couldn’t identify the other people there, so that was taken into consideration as well, that these men owned up to what they did.”

For Marion Humphrey, the defense attorney that represented Bradley, Bender, and Williams, the agreement reflected the unfairness of the initial charges.

“I appreciate the cooperation of the prosecuting attorney,” he said. “These men told the truth of what they did. Unfortunately, this is a situation where the victim was just as much at fault as anyone else.”

“He was already a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He wanted to be a nupe,” he continued. “He agreed to this. There were 14 people at the house on this occasion, and these guys are taking the wrap for what they did.”

Humphrey said that several important details about Scoggins’ lifestyle were excluded from the affidavit the judge used to determine probable cause for the charges, including that he played football for Arkansas Tech.

“He had a pretty intense lifestyle,” Humphrey said. “Whatever injuries he sustained had to do with a lot of things that went on in his life in the weeks leading up to April 17 and even afterwards.”

Humphrey cited two witness statements from Scoggins’ roommates that hinted at the deterioration of his health in the days leading up to April 17, the day of the beating. According to the two roommates, Scoggins told them that he was going to Louisiana for the weekend for a “fraternity test,” and returned late Sunday night.

According to one witness, a friend told him that he saw Scroggins on crutches on April 16. On April 18, the witness said he saw Scoggins lying on the couch. “He said he thought he had a kidney stone,” the statement read.

“He was in the room the next couple of days [following his return from Louisiana] and began to complain about pains and used iced packs,” the other witness said. “This was usual because of his previous football-related injuries.”

Humphrey said that Scoggins had attended football practice on the day following the beating, and Humphrey had subpoenaed former Tech head coach Steve Mullins, who did not testify in light of the plea bargain.

“It was never placed in the affidavit that he played football,” Humphrey said. “He played football on April 18. It’s as though they struck that date off the calendar and pretended that that date did not exist, and said that after he met with Kappa Alpha Psi members on one day, that the next day he called his girlfriend and had her take him to the hospital.”

“That’s not true,” he added. “The next day, he played football. And that never was disclosed to the judge before the judge said that his injuries were caused by what happened at the hands of these Kappa Alpha Psi members. That is not right.”

While Humphrey claims that Scoggins took a hard hit during practice, Sam Strasner, the Arkansas Tech Director of University Relations, said that athletic officials reviewed video footage of the practice on April 18 and found no indication that Scoggins was injured.

Gibbons found the evidence pointing towards the same conclusion: that playing football did not cause Scoggins’ injuries.

“The injuries were not caused by football practice,” he said. “The injuries were caused by blows he received.”

Bradley attended Arkansas Tech, where he played on the football team. The university expelled him following the battery charges. Bender and Williams both graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2012.